Award Data

Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) and Raman spectroscopy are developing rapidly for chemical and biochemical sensing applications. There is an urgent need for high-sensitivity detectors so as to minimize sample quantity and maximize detection range from the source. In most field-deployable spectrometers, a photo-detector array is used for analyzing the spectral contents. The sensitivitie ...

A nearly universal trend in modern technology is the continued integration of systems, and their associated devices, on decreasingly smaller scales. While this has led to personal computers that offer more functionality and faster computational speeds, ithas also spurred the development of hybrid optoelectronic systems on a chip (SOCs). Currently, such SOCs are receiving significant interest fro ...

Scheduling is a complex, NP-hard problem that challenges the use of any single solution technique. In Phase I, we built a model that uses our multi-technique Quantum Leap Problem Solving Engine to solve a representative but simplified version of the AirForce Satellite Control Network (AFSCN) contact scheduling problem. The system demonstrated that it could schedule the hundreds (500 to 600) of t ...

Current riverine craft are built in aluminum. Although aluminum is an obvious candidate material for a riverine operating environment, innovative solutions that deliver structural weight reduction to enable higher speeds, greater payload and increased survivability are always desired. Advanced lightweight composite structural armor concepts, comprised of hybrid fiber reinforced materials, grade ...

Based on multiple technology platforms and theoretical analyses, in the Phase I program we have demonstrated the feasibility that RF polymers with desirable high frequency properties can be achieved. Following Edison¡¯s model of product and process development for technology innovations, Phase-II will pursue further incremental improvement in material properties upon the concept-proving materi ...

In this program, we propose a radio frequency (RF) direction finding sensor for low probability of intercept (LPI) RF radar system. This sensor consists of a dielectric lenses focusing system and an innovative focus plane detector array (FPDA) developed by Spectrum Magnetics, LLC (SM). The focusing system project the RF signal onto its focus plane. A novel FPDA based on emerging spintronic and met ...

In this SBIR program, AlphaSense, Inc. teamed with the Center for Non-destructive Evaluations at Iowa State University to develop a compact, low cost handheld sensor for non-destructive material case depth verification. In phase I, we have proven the feasibility of using an alternating current potential drop (ACPD) sensor for non-destructive measurements of case depth. Phase II will be focusing on ...

In this Phase II SBIR effort we will dramatically reduce the size, weight, and power requirements of a passive millimeter wave imaging system based on optical upconversion. To this end, we will integrate custom silicon-germanium low noise amplifiers that have been designed to efficiently couple with our high performance lithium niobate upconversion modules. In Phase I we analyzed the design requ ...